By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe sought a federal disaster declaration Tuesday for three storm-ravaged Arkansas counties.
Beebe’s office said the governor sent a letter to President Obama asking him to declare Miller, Polk and Sevier counties federal disaster areas. The declaration would make financial assistance, temporary housing, disaster unemployment insurance, crisis counseling and Small Business Administration disaster loans available for storm victims.
Assessment teams tallied 659 damaged homes in those three counties, the governor’s office said. Of those, 157 homes were destroyed and another 140 received major damage.
The three counties were among five that Beebe declared state disaster areas. Ashley and Howard were the others.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Mena Mayor George McKee said most of the streets in tornado-damaged town are passable and national guardsmen and law enforcement officers were patrolling the city.
The tornado and severe storms killed three people in the small western Arkansas town in Polk County last week. In all, 11 counties across the state were damaged in the storms.
“Most of our streets are now passable but we want to ask that anyone who has not signed in as a volunteer, who does not have property in the area … to please refrain from entering the area,” McKee said.
Mena School District officials said Tuesday the Mena Middle School, heavily damaged by the storm, will have to be condemned.
School officials said as many as 300 seventh and eighth graders will attend classes at an old middle school in Hatfield, about 12 miles away, beginning next week. Another 165 sixth graders will attend classes at the Dallas Avenue Baptist Church in Mena.
Renee Preslar, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management, said Tuesday that local, state and federal officials continue to assess damage in the disaster areas, and that those assessments will determined whether a federal disaster declaration is needed.
Damage assessments of public and government buildings are to begin Wednesday, Preslar said.
Meanwhile, state Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford said his office has received reports of public insurance adjusters approaching citizens in Mena. He said public adjusters are not permitted in the state.
“I advise everyone to request the identification of anyone approaching them claiming to be an adjuster,” Bradford said, adding that the salary of adjusters are paid by the insurance company he or she represents.
The storms downed more than 200 utility poles in the Mena area. Southwestern Electric Power Company officials said the company had restored power to all but 342 customers in the Mena area by 4 p.m. Tuesday and expected at least 95 percent of customers to have power by midnight Friday.
